Saw this story yesterday & thought the goal was to produce sympathy for Condi – too much Pretty Woman imagery. I find it hard to believe that any sales clerk would fail to notice the secret service folks that inevitably have to be hanging about, nor would anyone working retail fail to notice Condi’s appearance, I’m doubting she shops in for jewelry in jeans & a tee.

oops -sorry for the double post.

Okay, feeling a little slow here….what does â€DFH†stand for?

The timing context would be illuminating.

Remember how Condi was scolded by a fellow customer in a shoe store in New York City for buying expensive shoes the week of Katrina two years ago, and how Condi had security eject that customer from the store?

Sleezy’s grin, as I’m sure you remember, is a gap-toothed spectacle of orthodontic malpractice. Perhaps our anonymous salesperson just assumed that if Madame Secretary can’t afford good braces, there is no way she could spring for the fancy stones.

DFH=Dirty Fucking Hippy. I believe this is another term coined by Atrios, the Maynard G. Krebs of our time.

Does anyone have access to Nicholas Lemann, â€Without a Doubt,†New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2002? Because I have read this story before, and I think that’s where I read it.

I hold no brief for Condi, and have sworn to myself that if Stanford gives her a job after Bush I’ll be leaving my ginormous fortune to my Lhasa Apso instead. Nevertheless, this [old] story begs at least 20 questions. Speaking as a white male, if I had been insulted by *anyone* as I attempted to buy stuff (an activity, I might say, that the Preznit himself has recommended as supporting the troops), I would have teed off on that person with no holds barred. If I thought that comparing wages would hurt the most, that’s where I would have gone. Yes, Condi is a self-righteous arrogant sanctimonious bitch, but nobody’s perfect. I’m with her on this one.

I’ve gotten the same treatment when I’ve walked into places like Banana Republic in this swank, upscale town near my home looking like a Dirt-Ass, which is the equivalent of DFH in our little punk community. Meanwhile I have a fairly well-paying job and how do they know what I make just b/c I chose to walk out of the house looking like a DA?

However, I don’t think I’d go into the realm of rudeness that Condi chose. Mostly I just walk out of the store, b/c why would I want to give my money to such rude people… And they don’t care/notice anyway.

didn’t Oprah experience something similar in (?) Paris?–it would be interesting to compare and contrast…but I don’t remember the details of Oprah’s confrontation with sassy salespersons…

mighty mouse

A couple of my dissertation advisors were black. One day, one of them was walking through the main office of her department and a grad student came up to her, handed her a bunch of papers, and said, â€Make copies of these for me, would you.†My advisor was pretty sanguine about it, but I was absolutely appalled.

P.S. What I am trying to say is that I have probably never been in the type of retail establishment where Condi had this encounter. But I always sort of assume salespeople don’t need to/shouldn’t be required to be nice because they are paid minimum wage and treated poorly…

First of all, I hate her with a passion….she has done nothing in my eyes for this country except for being a pawn for the King. I tried an experiment a long time ago when I was younger about this same subject you folks are talking about. One day after work on a Friday I went into Bullocks and in the Fine Jewelry department, I had no assistance at all. The next Friday, I had dressed in fancy office attire and was waited on immediately…so there is human psychology behavior in this of course. But for Ms. Pawn to state that sentence back to the clerk was unnecessary. If she was so highly educated and up in the mainstream so high, you would think you would have a little better public ettiquette, and said something more like…â€Yes deary, I want some extra fancy baubles for my next Political Ball I attendâ€, and slapped the Prada handbag up on the counter……(sorry knee slapping here…LOL LOL!!!) wink wink

EW – I like this thread; it is good therapy. I think once a week, you ought to pick out a high profile administration bozo, relate an offbeat story and let us tee off. It is kind of fun….

Some folks just don’t treat service people with any respect. They have the attitude that, if the person is â€waiting†on them, then, they have to take abuse. It’s a feeling of being in control over someone else, I think, and sometimes, I’ve noticed, perfectly nice people (otherwise) act really ugly to waiters and waitresses and shop personnel. This embarrasses me, tremendously, when it is unwarranted. I’ve even paid the tip to a waiter because the companion I was with was drunk and argumentative over service which wasn’t bad, in the slightest. The â€lording it over†someone who is socially or economically on a lower rung is a symptom of how we look at labor in this country. All work is noble, and deserves our respect. Scott Horton made a comment the other day that Gonzales’ statement that his â€worst day was better than his father’s best day†was arrogant, noting that he shouldn’t speak for his father, who may have been fulfilled in his work, and been grateful for his job. We can’t judge how happy someone is in his job, based on whether we would want that job, minimum wage or not. (And Condi Rice is not a â€nice lady,†as we used to say.)

Non-story. The clerk asked for a mouth full of verbal and she got it. Pre-Secretary of State or post? We don’t know, the story doesn’t say. Not enuf context. We do know though from Dr. Coit Blacker, (gotta luv that name), that the clerk got sassy. I’m sorry, but you don’t get sassy with customers asking to see better baubles and if you do, expect to get dressed down with the requisite bitch slap. Yeah Condi’s a repug slug but that’s got nothin to do with it. She doesn’t have to take that kinda crap pre-Bush or post. And anyone here who says the proper response would be to just walk away needs to get off their self righteous of so full of shite high horse.

GH…well in one way you are right…the Customer is always right…and business’s want their employees to appeal to the public to get more sales…but to throw in the gals face..I make more money than you so now serve me..is just wrong…so I guess you would have to slap my face…and in good turn I would slap yours…LOL wink wink

It was very enlightening to go from white to DFH in college. I had never been followed around a store like a suspected thief before I got all earthy. Then it became common. Once I had ridden my bike and thus had a backpack to carry my bike locks. DFHs with backpacks are baaad, I suppose.

I have worked in customer service (retail and now software support) for 15 years. Condi reacted correctly. And besides – it probably didn’t actually happen – if a repukian said it, it probably is not true.

A sharp memory from 9/13/01: I had gone to Washington Square to check in on some NYU friends who had seen too much/ were still collecting themselves after 9/11. Passing by the impromptu memorial in the Square (soon to be taken down due to seemingly non-existent threats of rain), my eyes were arrested by a handmade sign with the slogan: â€Resign Condi. Haven’t you done enough?†Though I’ve long distrusted Condi, knowing something of her Stanford days, I continue to be amazed at the prescience of that sign. Wish I knew who wrote it. . . .

Was she secretary of state when she responded in such a manner?

She was probably was just all flustered from the rigmarole.

Is there any truth to the rumor Condi is arguing against a policy of bombing Iran?

GH, just for arguements sakes…I looked at her Bio…seems she is situated in a well to do neighborhood, if the clerk was in a store in her well to do neighborhood, they are probablly all taught to respect the customer…it may have been no racial slur at all…..I have had many times the clerks at Jewelry counters have a grumpy attitude just because I am bouncing around the jewelry case wanting to see all different sorts of items and pricing them…it could have been the clerk was retorting with this type of grimace or remark? Unless we know the remark of the clerk we cannot really resolve this. Besides…a man was recounting this shopping trip…and you know men hate shopping with women and usually want to get out the shop as soon as possible and head to the nearest hot dog stand…LOL wink

Here’s some info on Blacker from his page at Stanford . Note he also turns with the aspens.

Coit Blacker is director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies: the Olivier Nomellini Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education: and professor of political science, by courtesy.

During the first Clinton administration, Professor Blacker served as special assistant to
the president for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the NSC, he oversaw the implementation of U.S. policy toward Russia and the New Independent States, while also serving as principal staff assistant to the president and the National Security Advisor on matters relating to the former Soviet Union.

From 1998 to 2003, he served as co-director of the Aspen Institute’s U.S.-Russia Dialogue, which twice each year brings together prominent U.S. and Russian specialists on foreign and defense policy for discussion and review of critical issues in U.S.-Russian relations. He was a study group member of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (The Hart-Rudman Commission) throughout the Commission’s tenure.

Sleezy’s grin, as I’m sure you remember, is a gap-toothed spectacle of orthodontic malpractice.
Posted by: tekel | August 30, 2007 at 11:19

Damn tekel, is that what the clerk said to her?

To much reading of vast worldly concerns into a chance meeting with a clerk in a store.

The clerk may have been having a bad day, may have been disgruntled at her management, may have had a hang over.
She may have said (either by misjudgement, or kneejerk reaction to someone asking her to make a little more effort and work harder) â€you won’t be able to afford them either.†No one has said what she said, so to presume that Condi’s answer was in the wrong vein, is rather foolish.

Why all this philosophizing over something you know next to nothing about?

Jodi – It is fun. Besides, â€philosophizing over something you know next to nothing about†has never stopped you, now has it?

Doh! Bmaz

Section 8 Troll – You continue to mistype your numerical designator. It is Section 8 for crazy twits like you. You were properly dispatched long ago at Washington Monthly; begone from here. If you had truly read the comments here, you would have seen that as to any possible racial aspects, Ms. Rice was supported. The rest was just fun. You, however, are not fun, nor particularly relevant to any intellectual conversation. You are a troll.

section 9

Perhaps you didn’t read the post. You know–the one where I guessed that it was a racial slur and that’s why Condi went off?

Greenhouse said, â€What really happened has turned into something very revealing about modern liberals.†Well, lessee, there are 12 comments overtly supporting Condi. I made one of them. I’m a modern liberal. Thanks for your insight.

Now, what happens to this story if Coit is wrong about what he thought the clerk said (â€Sassâ€)? What if, as a friend, he is trying to preemptively cover up a Condi Meltdown? We don’t know nearly enough about this, and never will. Condi has enough baggage anyway. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Oops – sorry Greenhouse. I can’t get used to the signature being separated from the comment by a line.

and let us not forget, Tony Snow is leaving because he is not paid enough……..

(curious how Bush kept the cancer alive in the press conference, gee tony messed up that too)